Centennial Celebration Tour of El Camino Real as First State Highway

Text by Mark and Kay BarchasPhotos by Mark Barchas and Milt Wheeler

In January, Mark and Kay Barchas discovered that El Camino Real was the very first California State Highway and that the first segment to be paved was San Bruno to Burlingame starting August 7, 1912. Since its 100th birthday was coming up, we decided to celebrate this centennial with a major gathering of vintage automobiles to tour the first segment of El Camino Real, starting in San Bruno and ending with a picnic lunch in Burlingame.

We assembled the morning of Tuesday, August 7, 2012 with approximately 70 cars, 2/3 of them pre-war, 24 owned by members of the MPOTAC. Twelve of the cars were Packards, exceeded in number only by the Fords. There was a ceremony at San Bruno City Hall with brief speeches by local and state dignitaries, including Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Assemblyman Jerry Hill, the Mayor of San Bruno, the Head of Cal Trans, and a member of the County Board of Supervisors. This was followed by a costumed reenactment of the "first dig." After the ceremony, we caravanned the seven miles down El Camino to Burlingame, where we parked under the oaks in Washington Park and had a picnic, complete with birthday cakes. Becky Schuette's mother, 100 years old, was kind enough to blow out the candles.

Many organizations joined with us to put on this event, including CalTrans, the San Mateo County Historical Association, the City of San Bruno, SamTrans, and the Grand Boulevard Initiative, which is working towards upgrading El Camino into a truly grand boulevard. The Mid Peninsula Old Time Auto Club was the sponsor for the vintage auto part, with Nor Cal Packards playing a strong supporting role. Members of both clubs helped the morning of the event to organize the cars and procession. Many local old car clubs encouraged their members to attend, including The Bay Area Horseless Carriage Club, several Model A and Model T Clubs, Early Ford V-8 Club, Vintage Chevrolet Club, and many more. This was one of the largest local tours ever of vintage autos for most of us. More than one movie was made of our procession, which we are trying to make accessible.